


Other Passions

by mmmdraco



Category: Hikaru no Go
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-27
Updated: 2012-08-27
Packaged: 2017-11-13 00:45:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,604
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/497498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mmmdraco/pseuds/mmmdraco
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There are things Shindou loves outside of go and he gets an opportunity to share one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Other Passions

Shindou is the last one to arrive at his own party and, while no one is actually upset that he is five minutes late, there is just a little bit of the high-handed teasing he's used to from his friends. But nothing they can say about his being late or his hair or his clothes can derail his mind from the fact that he is Kisei. He'd had a huge winning streak lately, even better than Touya (and he had bested Touya in their last _three_ official games), and life was just _good_. No one had a game tomorrow, so they could go out and have fun and he could spend some of his Kisei money. It was going to be _awesome_.

The plans had been made to meet at the Nihon Ki-in and to decide on anything else from there. So, they stand on the steps and look at Shindou expectantly after Waya asks the question, "Since it's almost lunchtime, where do you want to go eat?"

Shindou runs it over in his mind. Waya and Isumi. Fukui. Honda. Nase. Yashiro. Touya. Saeki and Ashiwara. Akari and her go-club boyfriend whose name Shindou just could not remember even though the guy was pretty good for a non-pro. A dozen people wanting lunch? Hmm... "Well, does anyone mind a prix-fixe lunch set?" His tongue stumbles a little on the French words, but he thinks he's managed well enough.

Waya gives him a funny look. "What ramen place started that up?"

"It's not ramen."

Fukui leans forward to glance around at the group. "What's prix-fixe?" He mangles the words entirely and Shindou feels good about his attempt.

Akari smiles. "Fixed price. It's like when you're in the cafeteria and you get the B lunch set and everything it comes with, but at a restaurant." Her boyfriend holds her hand and looks pleased.

Touya is the first one to actually agree, and Shindou's sure that it's probably because he's feeling sorry that the last time he beat Hikaru in an official match it was the one to keep him from challenging for the Juudan title. "This is Shindou-san's celebration. I'm more than happy to go where he likes."

Shindou led the way through the streets of Ichigaya into an awkwardly placed white building with a red sign and red doors that was near and dear to his heart. 

"Chez Olivier?" Waya reads the sign aloud. "What is this place?"

Holding open the door, Shindou shrugs. "A restaurant." He walks through the door and smiles as he sniffs the air. He walks up to the maitre d' and waves. "Hey, Frederic! Can we get a table for twelve?" It takes a few minutes for Frederic to express the proper shock at the number of people Shindou had come with and to ask about his go, congratulate him on the title, and then to lead them to a set of tables along one wall with a long booth making up one side. 

Left with menus and more silverware than any of them are used to, they start asking questions. Shindou waves them all off. "It's a restaurant and I'm paying. Order whatever." Shindou immerses himself in the menu and debates between the beef filet meal or actually trying the pigeon.

Fukui flips through the menu. "Shindou-san, this menu is all in... some other language."

"It's French. I can help you figure out some of it and our waiter can tell you anything I can't."

Akari runs a finger down a page. "There are some different things on the menu from the last time we came here."

"What? He's taken you here before?" The boyfriend (Kaoru?) asks with more than a little shock in his voice.

She shrugs. "Kenji-san, we're friends. We've been out to eat together a lot." Kenji, then.

Ashiwara is as good-natured about the menu as anything else. "Saeki-san, maybe you should pick something out for me. I'm willing to eat anything you think I'll like."

Saeki looks to Shindou blankly. "You should probably just pick for all of us."

"If you don't know what you want, tell the waiter what you like and he can recommend some things."

Shindou sits back in his chair and looks around at the mostly white decor and remembers the first time he'd been in here. Sai had still been around, but it was getting there toward the end. They'd walked past on their way home and Sai had stopped to look at the place and asked about the funny name as he did with all foreign things at first. Hikaru had rolled his eyes and walked over to the building. A sign had been outside advertising some of the specials and they were all dishes that Hikaru had never even heard of. It had been Sai who pushed for them to go inside and who had decided that he wanted to see what coq au vin was, but it was Hikaru who got to eat the homemade bread and the little bundle of something that had been brought to the table first that tasted briny and smooth and delicious and then the coq au vin with it's rich, hearty flavor. It had been an eye-opener as much as go had been. Then again, so had the price tag.

Now that he is Kisei, and has the ¥45 million prize to go with it, he can afford to try dinner at some of the places he's only had lunch at. And he can afford to treat his friends, but not all the time. This place is way cheaper than Pachon over in Daikanyama and he likes the atmosphere better, too.

It's Nase who asks, "If you like places like this, why do you always want to go for ramen and NcDonald's?"

Playing with his napkin, Shindou trys to answer as tactfully as he can. "Um, these places get expensive. I'm still living with my parents and doing a lot of teaching, so I can afford to eat like this when I want, but I didn't want to ask to go to some expensive place when I couldn't pay. That's not cool. Besides, I _do_ like ramen and NcDonald's, but I really love, like, Western food."

Their waiter joins them and it's one who Shindou recognizes by face, but not by name. They're greeted in French and Shindou grins at the look on Yashiro's face. "Hey. I want to get a bottle of champagne for the table when you bring out the water and bread. And can you ask Chef Olivier if he'll come out? Just tell him Hikaru is here." Shindou glances around. "Does anyone want anything else to drink?"

Honda raises his hand slightly. "May I have some tea?"

Shindou shakes his head. "And a tea. Thanks."

The waiter leaves and Touya stares at Shindou for a moment. "I'm surprised that _we've_ never gone out to eat at a place like this."

"You never want to go out to eat on game days. I guess I just don't associate you with food?"

Waya sticks out his tongue at Shindou. "You're going to be just as fat as Kurata by next year."

"No, I'm not!" Shindou pats his stomach. "That's why I walk places all the time. I'll take the train if I don't have the time, but way too many go players get fat. You've gotta do your morning calisthenics, too."

Nase leans forward with her hands clutched loosely around her napkin. "But, you know the chef? That's kind of cool. How did you even get into this kind of thing?"

"Um, well, there's so many places to eat in Tokyo with food that isn't from around here. I thought that if I got good enough at go, then I'd be travelling the world so it would be good to know a few dishes from different places that were good so I wouldn't go looking for a Japanese place and be disappointed. But then I kind of realized that I can eat Japanese food, but I think I've got more of a Western palate. I mean, I hate soba. I can eat sushi, but I don't love it like a lot of you do. The more things I tried, the more I wanted to try."

Isumi glances around the restaurant. "And this is your favorite?"

Shindou shrugs. "I don't really have a favorite. But this place is really good and pretty affordable and close to the Ki-in-"

"Mister Shindou, I see you've brought me more paying customers." Chef Olivier holds out a hand to Shindou who takes it and shakes enthusiastically. "This isn't your birthday, is it?"

Touya smiles. "He won his first title."

"Ah! Perhaps you'd like me to make something special as my gift to you?"

Shindou shakes his head. "Nah. Well, unless you could do your coq au vin?" He tries to hide the grin that's professing itself.

"You're lucky. It's on the menu for tonight so it shouldn't take too long to have ready for you since the first batch is already roasting." The chef glances around at the group. "Will it be the coq au vin for everyone?" There's a handful of nods of cautious assent and a few dumbfounded looks, but Shindou nods in agreement anyway. The chef smirks at Shindou. "You're the only person I know lucky enough to walk into that sitution. You do know coq au vin has to marinate and cook for hours and hours, right?"

Sheepishly, Shindou shrugs. "I like to eat, but I still know nothing about cooking."

"Well, at least you've got good taste. I'll make something special for your amuse bouche." Chef Olivier holds up a hand and smiles to the group and heads back toward the kitchen.

Fukui asks, "What's an amuse bouche?"

Touya answers before Shindou can. "It's something the chef makes to whet your appetite. It's usually just a bite or two. I believe they started as a way to let chefs have a little fun in the kitchen even when they have a relatively set menu."

Ashiwara pipes up, "Oh, but everything in the kitchen is fun!" Saeki blushes and focuses on his silverware.

It isn't much longer before they have their bread and water (and Honda has his tea). The conversation moves to go, as it always does with this particular group (even if Akari sometimes drags them back out of it since she's just not the go-freak everyone else is). Shindou is well into his third piece of bread, and an in-depth discussion of his final Kisei game, when the amuse bouche arrives. Shindou's face lights up as he sees it and he laughs.

Everyone smiles as they get a look of the dish. It's a tiny saucer with a thin layer of a pale yellow sauce topped with a single large mouthful of whitefish. On top of the fish is a thin crispy fried piece of yam with the tiniest drizzle of balsamic vinegar. The finishing touch is a smattering of both black and white caviar. "It looks a little like a go ban!" Shindou says unnecessarily as he turns his plate this way and that before finally digging in. He cuts the large bite into two and slides one onto his fork and eats it carefully as a dollop of the sauce drips from his fork. It is everything he could want in a dish. The sauce is not as creamy as it looked, which is good, but has a hint of saffron. The fish is perfectly cooked. The yam is sweet and the texture works well. The balsamic blends the flavor well and the sturgeon and snail eggs pop between his teeth for an extra rush of flavor that finishes it all perfectly. The second bite is just as good as the first and he makes a point to have a fourth piece of bread that he mops in the remainder of the sauce before eating.

The reactions around the table differ a little. Yashiro has scraped off the caviar, but is willing to try everything else. Honda lifts the yam and eats it first with a look of mistrust on his face, but happily tries the fish. Akari and Nase also split theirs into two bites each and Kenji even feeds one to Akari. Everyone else just pops the whole thing into their mouth. Only Touya seems to enjoy it as much as Hikaru does. He doesn't clean his plate like Shindou, but his eyes close and he smiles blissfully. 

It's another twenty minutes or so before the coq au vin finally arrives. Shindou leans forward over the dish and just _inhales_. His hands find his utensils and work at getting a little of everything into one forkful. It's chicken and salt pork and pearl onions and mushrooms in a thick, rich sauce on a bed of fresh egg noodles and Shindou is in heaven. This was his sanctuary away from go. If it hadn't been for Sai, he wouldn't have found either of his passions.

At the end of the meal (they skip dessert because Akari has already told them they are going for crepes whether they like it or not), Shindou takes the check and only has a hint of shock as he pays the bill. He'd been expecting it to be higher, but he wasn't going to argue. Frederic stops him as they are about to leave. "Chef Olivier wanted you to have this. And, congratulations again!" 

Shindou looks at the pamphlet he is given and smiles as they walk off. It's a listing of day courses held at Le Cordon Bleu in Daikanyama. He is surprised to find himself considering several of them. He's spent so long being a little jealous of Yashiro and Touya and several of his other friends for pursuing education outside of go when he was having to catch up on all of the things he didn't know. But he's Kisei now and maybe he can finally stop spending every spare moment of every day with a go ban. 

Touya seems to appear at Shindou's side out of nowhere and Shindou is once again certain that part of Touya's lessons include ninja training. "Shindou-san, are you fond of Greek food?"

Shindou shrugs because it's one of the few cuisines he hasn't had much opportunity to try. "Do you know a place?"

"Argo. It isn't too far from here, actually. There's a beautiful view over the greenery of the Imperial Palace. We could have dinner there sometime after we play."

Shindou thinks of the little exposure he _has_ had to Greek food with spiced lamb and a tangy cucumber sauce and he is already nodding at the thought. "Yeah. D'you wanna go this week?"

At the back of the group, Isumi is carefully watching Waya who is holding his stomach. "The next time he suggests ramen, remind me just to agree with him. I can't take heavy food!"

Ashiwara is talking excitedly to Saeki about the food and whether Saeki thinks that Ashiwara can make that dish at home for the two of them and Saeki is trying hard not to grin as his sleeve is tugged every few words.

Shindou stretches his arms above his head. "Where's the crepe place again, Akari? We'll probably want to walk around a bit before we have dessert. Right now I couldn't eat another bite!"

There is laughter and conversation and Shindou is glad he did this. It's fun to share go with his friends, but it's fun to expand their common interests, too. And, really, who didn't like good food?


End file.
